This painting is closely related to Bacchante by the Sea, also in the Museum’s collection, which is dated 1865. However, the anatomy of the figure is not resolved and the sketchiness suggests that it is not a finished work, despite the signature.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Modern Art, Being a Contribution to a New System of Aesthetics. London, 1908, vol. 1, p. 171.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Camille Corot. 3rd ed. Munich, 1913, p. 46.

August F. Jaccaci. "Figure Pieces of Corot in America: II." Art in America 2 (December 1913), p. 2, as "Bacchante couchée dans la campagne"; notes that it dates from the same period as "The Muse: History" (R1388, MMA 29.100.193) and calls it a variation on a favorite subject; considers it to be a study, with only the figure completed.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, pp. 59–60, ill.

Martin L.H. Reymert et al. inIngres & Delacroix through Degas & Puvis de Chavannes: The Figure in French Art, 1800–1870. Exh. cat., Shepherd Gallery. New York, 1975, pp. 73–74, ill., remarks that this painting is one of a group of reclining female figures that derive from Corot's "The Nymph of the Seine" (1837; R379, private collection, Paris); notes the influence of Courbet and Puvis de Chavannes.

Corot painted several nudes in landscapes. Both this painting and Bacchante by the Sea (MMA 29.100.19; Robaut 1905, no. 1376) are based on an earlier study dated 1837, The Nymph of the Seine (private collection; Robaut no. 379). A related painting of about 1840–45 depicts a model in nearly the same pose (location unknown; Robaut no. 540), while another work, somewhat less similar, dates to about 1855–58 (Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva; Robaut no. 1046).

Another early recumbent nude, seen from the back in an interior setting, is Marietta, painted in Rome in 1843 (Petit Palais, Paris; Robaut no. 458).